Perhaps I should read the newspaper before I post....

I mentioned earlier today that Hooters opened in the last week.... well the county shut it down yesterday. That was fast. Apparently they did some plumbing and elelctrical work without the proper permits in place or signed off or something of that sorts Here's the link . 80 people are now out of work for a while 'til it all gets sorted out and everything is signed off.


In other local news, the Kealakeua bay trail to the Captain Cook monument has been reopened and they are once again allowing kayakers to park their kayaks on shore. They do still have a portion of the bay in front of the pali (cliffs) closed off, but otherwise things are more or less back to what they were before the big earthquake.

The photo above is of a mushroom coral (fungia scutaria). They are also locally referred to as razor coral. These are an interesting coral in that they are not attached to anything, often laying around on the reef. Since they are non-sessile, they can actually move around to some extent. They pull their tentacles back within during the daytime and people often mistake them for being dead. You should not be picking these guys up as they generally are alive, even though they appear to be dead. Hawaii does have a law against possession of several species local stony corals (hefety, hefty fine), I believe the purpose is to stop the harvest of corals, and I'm thinking this is one of the species on the list.

Steve